AUSTRALIA | Jehovah's Witnesses and Watchtower Society Appear Before Child Abuse Inquiry | Thursday 11 April, 2013

by jwleaks 25 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse

  • breakfast of champions
    breakfast of champions

    Interesting. . .

  • DATA-DOG
    DATA-DOG

    It's good to know that children of the world can count on the " Stars " in Jesus' right hand to do the right thing as long as it is legally advisable to do so.

  • rebel8
    rebel8

    See, there's no reason to embellish the wts' wrongs. Them telling even half the truth about themselves makes them look like giant assholes.

  • jwleaks
  • jwleaks
    jwleaks

    SALVATION ARMY AND JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES FACE QUESTIONING AT CHILD ABUSE INQUIRY

    Salvation Army forced to defend handling of child sex complaints

    by Barney Zwartz | The Age newspaper | Thursday 11 April 2012

    The Salvation Army has had 473 complaints about abuse in its Victorian children's homes, has spent nearly $20 million so far settling them and could give no explanation of how predators got away with it for so long - but it denied there had been a culture of abuse.

    The Salvation Army had almost no records of children in the homes but had not tried to hide, shred or dispose of them, Captain Malcolm Roberts told the Victorian inquiry into how the church handled child sexual abuse...

    The committee also grilled Jehovah's Witnesses Terrence O'Brien and Rachel van Witsen about when the church might refer child sexual abuse to police.

    Mr O'Brien, the director of the society, said if reporting was made mandatory the church would comply.

    He said if abuse was reported to elders, they had to inform the church's legal section before anything else. It was the victim or family's choice whether to go to police.

    Full story: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/salvation-army-forced-to-defend-handling-of-child-sex-complaints-20130411-2hnf6.html

  • DATA-DOG
    DATA-DOG

    "He said if abuse was reported to elders, they had to inform the church's legal section before anything else. It was the victim or family's choice whether to go to police. "

    Isn't this fairly new light brought about by the asenine rules made up by local BOE's to save face? Once their meddling landed them in court and started costing the WTBT$ money, a change was made in the policy. One that took all the decisions out of the Elder's hands and placed responsibility on the Branch authorities. Now the Branch decides who is a danger to children.

    Elders should actually be glad. I would call the Police if I was an Elder. Let the Branch swing in the wind. Wake up lurking Elders! Your " personal ministry " will not shield you from the authorities. Do the moral thing, regardless of the consequences. Be a real man.

  • alecholmesthedetective
    alecholmesthedetective

    "Who of these three seems to you to have made himself neighbor to the man that fell among the robbers?"

    "He said: 'The one who called the legal department and after their guidelines informed the abused child they should report the crime. And then after he got the confirmation from the legal department secretly told the parents in the congregation to keep an eye on their children and strictly warned them not to tell others in the congregation about it. And then left the child molester unsupervised so he could go out in service with young children again."

    Jesus then said to him: "I never knew you! Get away from me you worker of lawlessness!"

    Alec
  • SkyGreen
    SkyGreen

    I know of many decent elders who would definitely encourage reporting, but others that see things differently and would want to keep it all hush hush.

    Im all for mandatory reporting in all states. That way, they are legally compelled to report even suspicion of child abuse/neglect etc. Same as school teachers. The WTS should be erring on the side of caution here, if they are really "about stopping child abuse", then why wait for the law to compel them to report. I guess they are worried about defamation.

    Where is it in the elders handbook that they should encourage victims to go to the police?? That direction needs to be there. And elders should be reminded of it!

    I know of some witnesses who see the elders as the final authority and want them to act as policemen, because that is the way they have been led to feel by all the brainwashing - there needs to be a WT article about this.... are you reading this WTS??!! Some witnesses take the WT as gospel and they wont do anything unless a WT encourages it!!! YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THESE PEOPLE!!!

    Rant over.

  • finallysomepride
    finallysomepride

    bookmarked

  • Scott77
    Scott77

    Interesting reading about the Salvation Army also being part of the inquiry.

    Scott77

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